Cover Camel Nuts’s Poh Shih Yin on bringing her parents’ business to greater heights (Photo: Dr Chua Yang)
Camel Nuts’s Poh Shih Yin on bringing her parents’ business to greater heights (Photo: Dr Chua Yang)
1 / 1
The second-generation entrepreneur lets us in on how change can help grow and expand her family’s 50 year old company
In this series, Tatler speaks to second-generation entrepreneurs about their business journeys. They share more about stepping out on their own, the life lessons learnt through business and how they hope to keep their family legacy alive.
Whether it’s Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day or a random Thursday, chances are you have a packet of nuts from Camel Nuts in your pantry. After all, this 50-year-old homegrown brand has become a household name in Singapore.
Like many of us, second-generation leader Poh Shih Yin grew up around the popular brand—but in a different way than you think. While many of us ran around playgrounds when we were younger, Poh’s childhood was spent running around Camel Nuts’s first factory in Tampines.
In case you missed it: Legacy Building: How a twist of fate led Killiney Kopitiam’s Woon Tien Yuan to take over his family business
Above Poh Ah Seng and Ong Siew Hua
Poh Ah Seng and Ong Siew Hua
1 / 1
Reminiscing, Poh explains that her mother worked 24/7 and would bring her to work when no one was at home to care for her. “I have memories of helping our account tally sums, before computers were introduced in the early 1980s. I liked to use the calculator and thought that it was very important work back then,” she adds. Apart from tallying numbers, she would also help adhere stickers to packaging.
Founded in 1974, by Poh’s parents, Poh Ah Seng and Ong Siew Hua, Camel Nuts was born out of the duo’s passion for quality and healthy snacks. The brand began in a backyard, where the duo gained first-hand experience of the nut making process, from manufacturing to traditional nut roasting. Today, the brand is Singapore’s largest and only nut manufacturing company. A household name, the brand offers a wide selection of healthy and delicious nuts—and one of the reasons why it continues to do so is thanks to Poh.
Above Poh Shih Yin
Poh Shih Yin
1 / 1
From finance to food
While Poh spent most of her childhood in the factory, she had no pressures to join the family business growing up. “[My mother] told me from young to study hard, get good results and work in big corporates… she didn’t want us to work day and night like they did,” she shares.
Poh began her career as an auditor and an accounting professional, but after 20 years in the industry, she realised it was “better to be my own boss”. While she grew up thinking that her parents ran their own business because they “didn’t have a choice” she soon realised after joining the corporate world that her parents worked hard to provide for her family and also the families of those in the business with them.
Her time in corporate allowed her to realise that “everyone was after their own short-term benefits, rather than the long-term growth and benefit of the company,” Poh shares. Taking over her family business would mean that she would be able to “make contributions to the real growth for the long term.”
As she grew up with the business, she always had an idea of the going-ons internally. “My parents will talk about work at home a lot… so it didn’t feel any different when I came to work physically in the business,” she explains. Her knowledge of the business smoothed the initial learning curve as she transitioned from finance to the food and beverage industry.
On top of that, she was no stranger to the food and beverage world as both her parents and their peers were all pioneers in the food industry. An industry close to her heart, she explains how her parents always tell her that the food business is recession-proof. “Good times, bad times, people will have to eat,” she says.
To be authentic
Poh believes that one of the ways to continue her parent’s legacy and bring the company to greater heights is authenticity. Their ethos in building the business, she says, is through “authentic quality products and authentic genuine relationships with all we work with”.
She adds that the company is a family-oriented one, with many employees having been with them for many years. This means that they can have open conversations about the business. “Where I have made mistakes, they will tell me and I will reflect,” she explains. While not all shortcomings can be fixed immediately, Poh shares how this open communication helps her to be more aware and work towards being a better version of herself.
Communicating opening is also important between Poh and her parents, especially when opinions differ. Fortunately for Poh, her parents are open-minded and willing to let her try new things—one of them being the latest rebranding exercise.
Always evolving
For fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, big changes such as rebranding can be scary. This is because sales can take a hit if consumers do not recognise the brand after the change. Furthermore, due to our memories, consumers tend to not like rebranded products, commenting that “old is better”.
Despite this, Poh continued to go ahead with the change as she believed that the brand needed to “be more relevant to our young consumers”. The refresh saw its iconic camel and font redrawn into a more contemporary one. Fortunately for Poh, who spearheaded the rebranding exercise, she was able to successfully carry out the change—one of the reasons is due to the brand’s consistent and quality products.
Poh also explains that as society continues to grow, the brand will also need to adapt to changes quickly. She shares that Camel Nuts will continue to flourish as nuts are known to be a healthier snack. As society evolves, requirements for snacks “actually become simpler” as we look for cleaner food. Thus, the brand’s Naturally Baked series has increased in popularity.
As Camel Nuts celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, the brand is constantly looking for new and efficient ways to improve its processes. The brand also introduces new flavours regularly, including its latest individually packed trail mixes Power Bounce and Power Revive which have been raved about by many consumers thanks to the convenience and freshness of the packs.
With Poh at the helm, continuing her family’s legacy, we’re sure that Camel Nuts will continue to make waves for the generations ahead.
Topics
Amanda Goh was the former senior writer for Tatler Singapore.
